In the manufacture of certain types of cheese products, a cheese curd is extruded through a nozzle into a flexible tubular mold of typically 2 - 6 inches in diameter and a length of from 5 - 6 feet, solidified or allowed to "knit", and then removed from the mold leaving a solidified cheese product.
This product is cut to uniform length or slice thickness so as to get uniform specific weight. Two problem areas were noted with the conventional flexible tubular molds in the manufacture of cheese products by this process. One was that the tubular mold did not have sufficient resistance to cracking or breaking, particularly when the tubular mold was shirred onto a mandrel prior to extrusion of the curd into the mold. The second was that the mold did not have sufficient rigidity and toughness to permit the forming of a cheese product having uniform size so that when it was cut to a uniform length or slice thickness it would yield a product of specific weight. Quite often, the tubular mold stretched erratically under the high stuffing pressures, e.g., 5 - 10 psi, causing the cheese product to be irregular in size. On a large commercial scale, accurate size control is imperative for obtaining uniform weight.